The wave of summer travel on the German autobahns is approaching its peak: from Friday, the ADAC is expecting “one of the busiest weekends of the season,” as the automobile club announced on Monday in Munich. Almost all federal states are then in the summer holidays. The longest traffic jams are therefore expected for Friday afternoon, Saturday morning and Sunday afternoon.
In addition to the eleven countries that have already started their holidays, Hesse, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland will also close their schools on Friday. With the exception of Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg, all of Germany is in the summer holidays. Therefore, according to the ADAC, the most important holiday routes will be progressing “only at walking pace” in sections.
Many popular motorway routes are affected by the delays, as well as the metropolitan areas of Berlin, Stuttgart, Cologne, Frankfurt am Main and Munich, as well as the trunk roads to the North and Baltic Seas. The ADAC advises flexible holidaymakers to switch to quieter routes or to choose another travel day. It should be quieter on the trunk roads in the middle of the week.
Traffic jams are also to be expected abroad because of the holidays. The problem sections of the Tauern, Fernpass, Inntal, Brenner and Gotthard routes as well as the trunk roads to the Italian, French and Croatian coasts are particularly at risk. But traffic will also increase on the trunk roads towards Scandinavia.
The ADAC expects increased traffic along the Austrian Inntal and Brenner autobahn due to the blocking of alternative routes. In addition, the important Arlberg tunnel is closed for the entire travel season.
At the borders of neighboring European countries in the south, drivers would have to plan waiting times of around an hour, and even much longer for trips to Slovenia, Montenegro, Croatia, Greece and Turkey. The three motorway border crossings Suben on the A3 between Linz and Passau, Walserberg on the A8 between Salzburg and Munich and Kiefersfelden on the A93 between Kufstein and Rosenheim are particularly at risk of congestion.
